Product Description

A return visit to the village of Highbury from Jane Austen's Emma allows the reader to follow the local schoolmistress, Mrs. Goddard, around as she negotiates a society where the manners of a young lady are truly important.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #932645 in Books
• Published on: 1996-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 206 pages

Amazon.com Review
Joan Austen-Leigh is the great-great-grandniece of Jane Austen, and in this novel she attempts to recreate the world of Highbury, the village in Austen's novel Emma. Emma herself and Mr. Knightly (now happily married and ensconced in Donwell Abbey; Mr. Woodhouse is dead) are not, however, the main characters. Instead Ms. Austen-Leigh fleshes out the first novel's minor characters, chiefly Mrs. Goddard the schoolmistress, who had a non-speaking role in Emma. The world she describes is nonetheless undeniably Austenesque: matchmaking and breathless hopes of ensnaring eligible bachelors figure prominently, and there is much anticipation and maneuvering at dancing parties.

From Publishers Weekly
Jane Austen fans whose appetites haven't been satiated by the current adaptations of her work in film and TV productions may take some pleasure in this epistolary novel by Austen's great-great-grandniece. As in her earlier novel, A Visit to Highbury, Austen-Leigh attempts to enlarge on the story Austen constructed with such precision in Emma. Set in the Sussex village of Highbury, this extended version is told through the correspondence between Mrs. Goddard, mistress of the local school for girls, and her lonely sister, Mrs. Pinkney, now living in London. We learn that the Knightlys, the despicable Vicar Elton and his wife Augusta, Harriet and Robert Martin, the kind and beautiful Miss Elizabeth Martin and poor, chattering old Miss Bates are still thriving and carrying on about such matters as the importance of a new ball gown. Yet, there are big changes. Emma's family home, Hartfield, is now let to strangers. Mrs. Goddard rejects the sewing and crocheting that Emma did so brilliantly as "a most thorough-going waste of time." Even more unexpected in this world is Mrs. Goddard's praise for the bold way in which Mrs. Pinkney's niece runs away to Barbadoes with an Irish footman. Chiding her sister, Mrs. Goddard proclaims: "it is a new world, my dear Charlotte. We must all be prepared for change." Austen might have enjoyed such upheavals, but she would have rendered them with an exquisite, caustic irony that is missing from this bit of nostalgic fluff.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
YA. This novel, written by the great- great-great-niece of Jane Austen, should appeal to her famous relative's many fans. It is about the pursuits of the type of people found in Emma without actually bringing Emma Woodhouse Knightly upon the scene, although there are references aplenty to her. Mrs. Goddard, a kindly school mistress with attractive twin boarders, resides in Emma's home village of Highbury. Mrs. Goddard corresponds throughout the tale with her tart London sister, Mrs. Pinkney. Although the format is epistolary, there are plenty of descriptions of various balls, tea taking, and similar junkets with several romances and an elopement to engage Austen lovers anew.?Frances Reiher, Fairfax County Public Library, VA
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Excellent dip into Jane Austen's world.
Most excellent. Correspondence flies between schoolmistress Goddard of Highbury and her married sister in London; between the insufferable Mrs. Elton and her sister of the renowned Maple Grove residence, between Captain Gordon and his married daughter. Familiar characters as well as new acquaintances mingle in this sequel to Jane Austen's Emma.

A depth of knowledge relating to daily existence during the Regency period provides a solid background to this light fiction which also acts as a sequel to Austen-Leigh's previous novel, A Visit to Highbury (now out of print).

Dialogue is exactly what one might expect of an Austen descendent. For example, Mrs. Goddard at a ball observes "...alas, there are always too many pretty girls and not enough men at a ball. I do not know why that should be. But it is quite an immutable law."

Do not hesitate to give this to a young reader just discovering Jane Austen. Neither plot nor vocabulary should be cause for concern.

Emma continues!
This book is a follow up to "Later Days at Highbury," which is the story of Jane Austen's "Emma" told through the eyes of Mrs Goddard. She tells the story in a very interesting way: through letters.

Mrs. Goddard is a very minor character in Jane Austen's novel "Emma," but she is aware of everything that goes on in Highbury. She tells all the news and gossip to her sister. The book is made up entirely of their correspondence and a few letters from other characters.

Warning: this book does not focus on Emma or Mr. Knightly or other major characters from Emma!

Mrs. Goddard's life at the school and her students the main story here. One sub-plot is about Mrs. Pinkney (Mrs. Goddard's sister and her marriage to her husband) They live in London and run into the John Knightly's and the Eltons! Her husband has a niece who causes some trouble, as well as a scandal. What could the scandal be? Another subplot is about Miss Bates, who left town quite mysteriously and lives with the Churchill's. Is she happy there? You will have to read to find out.


Since Mr. Elton has left town, there is a new vicar. He is young and eligable! He brings a friend from school. So new romances are included in the book. There are plenty of unwed females for them to choose from. Whom will be engaged by the end of this book?

This book is such a delight. It is an easy read and you will enjoy the story through a lovely correspondence. It will make you want to practice the are of letter writing more often!

Great Book
This was a great sequel to A Visit to Highbury/Another View of Emma. I loved it immensely. It was very entertaining and kept in the Jane Austen style. Everything was written as letters back and forth with the main characters Mrs. Goddard and Mrs. Pinkney (her sister). If you enjoy sequels to Jane Austens novels, this is a must read.